/*
 *    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
 *    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
 *    the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
 *    (at your option) any later version.
 *
 *    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 *    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 *    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
 *    GNU General Public License for more details.
 *
 *    You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 *    along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
 *    Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
 */

/*
 *    Associator.java
 *    Copyright (C) 1999 University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand
 *
 */

package weka.associations;

import weka.core.Instances;
import weka.core.Capabilities;

public interface Associator {

	/**
	 * Generates an associator. Must initialize all fields of the associator
	 * that are not being set via options (ie. multiple calls of buildAssociator
	 * must always lead to the same result). Must not change the dataset in any
	 * way.
	 * 
	 * @param data
	 *            set of instances serving as training data
	 * @exception Exception
	 *                if the associator has not been generated successfully
	 */
	void buildAssociations(Instances data) throws Exception;

	/**
	 * Returns the Capabilities of this associator. Derived associators have to
	 * override this method to enable capabilities.
	 * 
	 * @return the capabilities of this object
	 * @see Capabilities
	 */
	Capabilities getCapabilities();
}